"My little Rosette sad-ma foi! It must be because Bijou is in such good health and, she's jealous of him. Come here Bijou, and stand on your hind legs as a Christian dog should, where every body can get a glimpse of your accomplishments. Mr. Rutridge, excuse the bizarrerie of a foolish old woman, and set a chair there for my watch dog-just here before me, if you please, monsieur." Which chair interposing between those occupied by our hero and Mademoiselle, made the style of "watch dog" conferred by Madame on that superannuated pigmy of a spaniel in some degree significant. Rutridge thought so at least, and wished the cunning Frenchwoman safely back in Goslington,-item: that Mademoiselle should remain)—and the unconscious Bijou at a place where, let us hope, no dog is sufficiently accountable in a moral and conscience-stricken sense, to be sent for larcenies in the kitchen, or ill-temper in the parlor.

CHAPTER V.

WHICH IS SIMPLY DEMOCRATICAL

"WE want to know something-something of great importance to the success of the fête," the voice of Twitty said at this juncture, addressing his friend, and Rutridge regarded the speaker with amusement, for the countenance of her Augustus was radiant with smiles, and Miss Amy leaning on his arm, wore a face of equal pleasure, and slightly blushed when Mr. Edward's eyes encountered hers. "Twit is a sly dog"-he thought, "why he's improved his opportunities in a way I should not have believed but for the evidence of my eyes, and has left me in the background, by Jove! I should'nt wonder much if there's an understanding between them," and felt a strong inclination to laugh at the development of the affair.

But Rutridge was in error, and the explanation less flattering to his friend than he supposed. Twitty having talked of himself and literature at large, the night before, and so made an impression not to be eradicated or despised by his auditress, as he imagined-could afford to gossip about trifles; and among other matters, alluded to the jest he had had at "his friend Ned's expense" regarding Miss Rosette, and his own private conviction that Ma'mselle must be on intimate terms with some lovely being, in the city say, whose good graces Mr. Edward hoped to win, or at least pave the way to, through the intervention of the little Brunette. It might be quite a romantic love affairthere was no knowing, his friend was so deep and silent on the subject; and ten

to one it was, from the very fact of Miss Rosette being concerned in it-your French girls were such artful little intrigantes. Amelia was secretly delighted at the suggestion: the case made out by Augustus, and substantiated by her own observation, was certainly in the highest degree plausible. For example, Rosette's absolute denial of interest in the young gentleman under discussion, in the very face of the mysterious confidence between them which had, at the beginning (she acknowledged it) excited her jealousy; besides which, there was the old theme of his attention at the ball, and his respectful and timid, even tender manner, on all occasions when called upon to address her. Could a feminine mind-I mean a mind already made up, and in no special need of reason-resist such an array of argument? Miss Amelia's did not, but yielded unhesitatingly to the sweet illusion. "I was too cruel and unjust to that dear duck, Rosy," she mused; "I could throw my arms round her neck this minute, and say over and over again, how sorry I am for being so unfeeling. And to think too of my supposing for a moment, he was capable of forming another attachment, or of remaining aloof from any other reason than too great modesty-poor fellow!"

Twitty was delighted with her flow of spirits and conversation; she asked so many amusing questions, too, about his friend-clearly because he was his friend; as for instance," whether he (Mr. R.) was not something of a poet-really now on his honor, didn't he write sometimes; perhaps secretly influenced, though he might not admit it, by his friend Mr. Twitty?" To which Mr. Augustus feeling complimented, made answer-" that he thought Edward had acknowledged authorship so far as the composition of a short poem to some inamorata went, probably years ago when a mere boy." But of course Miss Amelia knew better, although she kept her own counsel.

Another question was, "whether Mr. R. didn't go fox-hunting often-and wasn't it a very dangerous sport? She knew it must be, for how the horses could run through those pine woods without killing themselves and their riders against the trees, she never could imagine. She wondered Mr. Twitty did not use his influence (which flattered Twit again), to induce so esteemed a friend to ride only in the open roads-many gentlemen did she believed her papa for one. What a pang would the announcement of any injury to a friend of years' standing, cause so sensitive a heart as (she was sure) Mr. Twitty possessed."

Thus in our most Christian and orthodox times, does the demigod, whom we no longer erect altars to, and know only in the teachings of a dead tongue and on the water-colored pages of Valentines— reign and rule as imperiously as ever, making a very serpent for guile of a harmless dovelike Miss Peck, and blinding the eyes of Messrs. Twitty and Rutridge, and opening those of Mademoiselle Bonair.

"What is it you wish to know?"— Rutridge said then in reply to his smirking friend. "Suppose it rains "-Twit suggested, "Miss Am-Miss Peck and I have taken an observation of the heavens, but the fact of nothing like clouds being visible at present, is no surety for its remaining dry you know at this season. If it should rain, will that be an end of the fête ?" "By no means," Rutridge answered promptly-"if it should rainwhich I see no signs of now-we must be content with the ball part within doors. Of course it is part of the programme, that you are to drive to Cypress-hall in the event of the ground being too wet under the oaks. We can dance in the dining-room and promenade in the piazzas."

Miss Hetty listened to this avowal of the provident character of the programme with scarcely concealed wonder and amusement: "Was ever such a dreadful story-teller!" she commented. Why we made not the least provision for a rainy day, and here he pretends every thing was settled a week ago. The consequence will be, if it does rain, which goodness forbid! we'll have these people to entertain the livelong day, with the help of his friend Augustus the Wise."

Miss Harriet viewed the matter in a similar light, but rather more intolerantly, when related to her on their way home: Twitty remaining behind to dine with the Major, not being very difficult to persuade into any thing, and Mrs. P. doing her best to keep them all to dinner.

"Really brother," Miss Rutridge the well-descended, cried then indignantly, "you ought to be ashamed of running after the people as you do. But it's just like the levelling tendency of the age, for a Rutridge to be inventing ways, even telling untruths I may say, to have a rich shopkeeper's family in his house associating with his sisters, merely because they are rich. I can remember when we would not have regarded them more than the dirt under our feet."

"It's all nonsense to talk in that way now, Hatty," the less arrogant Hetty replied; "our best families have intermarried in all sorts of ways, and these Peck

people are tolerably well connected through their mother. And I really think the protegée of Madame Mere and the friend of Miss Peck, is a very sweet little creature, and I have no doubt of excellent parentage. On the whole, I liked the visit very much."

Why Hetty!" Edward exclaimed. equally surprised and gratified," you speak like a sensible girl, and a warm-hearted one to boot. Harriet is always mounted too high to see, or even admit the presence of any thing to interest by the wayside. You may say 'fudge!' Hatty, but by Jove! education and talent lift too many men now-a-days over the heads of very aristocratical and exclusive people, to allow any one mingling in society to ignore the truth. Do you suppose, Harriet, every white gloved hand you touched at the St. Cecilia's last February claimed kindred with our hidalgos?-Pshaw ! -I recollect standing by and seeing you led down to supper, one evening, by young Anvile, who has since been appointed Secretary of Legation to Brazil, but whose grandfather was a blacksmith, and shod our horses not quite out of my memory. As for running after mere wealth or paying the least court to it, there is nothing I more heartily despise. I don't even reverence elective honors, bought as so much merchandise with their equivalent in dollars. And the amusing part of it is, I am counted proud, and the deuce knows what, I dare say, by a certain set, while you, Hatty, imagine me a thorough leveller and demagogue, because I don't turn my back on the gratuitous courtesies of an amiable old gentleman, who made his money by sugar and salt instead of rice or cotton, and is not a Brummel in his address certainly."

In which speech it will be seen our hero, like a dexterous diplomatist-as he was in virtue of a seat elect in the legislature, steered clear of Scylla without falling into Charybdis; or in other words, exculpated himself, and showed his appreciation of Miss Hetty's partisanship of Mademoiselle, without alluding once to that young lady whatever; a rare stretch of policy for a man so desperately in love.

I suppose it is useless to argue against fate, and such an array of social facts," Miss Harriet returned, not ill-humoredly, somewhat mollified by the latter part of our legislator's harangue. "But I hope, if it should rain, and those people come, yon won't amuse yourself, sir, with the young ladies, and leave us to exchange recipes and jokes with the Major and his lady,' as he calls her."

"No, Hatty,"-Rutridge cried with a laugh, and as I got you in the scrape I

and Edward Belcher-men who subsequently distinquished themselves in Polar voyages of discovery. Ross proceeded through Davis' Straits into Baffin's Bay, and reached Lancaster Sound, from which place he returned to England with the information that he saw a range of mountains, which he had named the Croker Mountains, stretching across that inlet and barring all progress to the West by that way. The voyage was a failure. In the same year, the ships Dorothea and Trent, under the orders of Capt. Buchan, with whom Lieut. Franklin acted as second in command, were sent to Behring's Straits. But the perils and difficulties of this expedition were more remarkable than the results of it, and the ships returned before the close of the year.

In 1819, Franklin, impressed by the discoveries of Hearne, Mackenzie and others, along the northern edge of this continent, undertook to trace the looked for passage, from the mouth of the Coppermine River, eastward, by the shore, towards the waters of Hudson's Bay. Proceeding from one of the forts of the Hudson's Bay Company, attended by Mr. Back and Dr. Richardson, since distinguished for their explorations, he traced the Coppermine to the ocean. Thence, his party, with their boats and sledges, journeyed along the coast, for 600 miles; till at last, having reached a point which they named Turnagain, and finding their provisions falling short, they quitted the sea and took up their march, of fifty days, along Hood's River towards Fort Enterprise. In September 1820, commenced the dreariest and most miserable of journeys. The expedition consisted of Franklin, Dr. Richardson, Mr. Hood a young officer, Mr. Back, Hepburn a sailor, ten Canadians with French names, and two Indians. The country was desolate, barren, and covered with snow. In a few days their pemmican failed and their chief resource was a sort of moss called tripe de roche. Though they succceded in shooting a few animals, their sufferings from hunger and cold soon became dreadful, as they slowly made their way through snow-drifts and ravines, and over torrents, in the direction of Point Lake. Franklin fainted from exhaustion and want of food. Mr. Back, and three men were hurried in advance towards Fort Enterprise to hasten relief, while Franklin and the rest moved painfully on, at the rate of five or six miles a day. They were soon reduced to eat the leather of their old shoes and two Canadians dropped down and perished in the snow. Dr. Richardson, Hepburn, and Michel the Iroquois, remained with poor Mr. Hood under a tent, while Franklin and the rest

pushed on towards the Fort. When the latter reached it at last, after having left three more Canadians to perish in the track-they found it deserted and foodless. and, looking into each other's emaciated faces, burst into tears. Sending part of his men forward, Franklin was forced to stay at the fort, with three others, also unable to proceed-and he and they had no food but the soup of old bones picked up or dug from the ground. In a day or two they were joined by Richardson and Hepburn who informed him that Michel the Iroquois had assassinated Mr, Hood, and that the Doctor had shot him in turn. On the first of November, two Canadians died at the fort, and the survivors could not remove them. On the 7th, Indians came bringing provisions, and they were all saved, when nearly at the last gasp. Certainly Sir John Franklin did not proceed on his last voyage to the Polar seas, uninured to the dreariest and most perilous chances of that terrible region.

While Franklin was suffering in this overland expedition, Lieutenant Parry was making his most successful voyage. In May 1819, he proceeded with the Hecla and Griper to Lancaster Sound, where he proved the Croker Mountains to be as visionary as those of Hy Brasil off the north-west coast of Ireland, and, advancing through the strait which he named after Mr. Barrow, Secretary of the Admiralty, made the most pronounced discoveries of modern research in that region. He first saw and named Wellington Channel, Regent's Inlet, Bathurst's, Byam Martin's, Melville's and other islands, now called the Parry Islands. He also saw and defined Banks' Land in the southwestern distance. These places have ever since been the great landmarks of Northern research; no navigator has gone beyond them, and all subsequent discoveries have been made about them and with reference to them. Travelling over Byam Martin's Island, Parry's officers discovered remains of Eskimo huts, and traces of oxen, hares, reindeer and other crea tures, proving that in the neighborhood of the Polynya there is no want or difficulty of animal existence. This voyage was a fortunate one in every respect. Parry ran rapidly in, made his discoveries, wintered, and came out again in the open season. His next voyage, in 1821, with the Fury and Hecla, was to the lower waters-those of Hudson's Bay; and he spent the winter of that year in Fox's Channel. He passed two winters in the North, and explored Melville's Peninsula. In 1823, Capt. Clavering conveyed Capt. Sabine to Spitzbergen and Greenland, to make experiments, determining the con

figuration of the earth. Lyons proceeded in 1824, with the intention of examining Melville's Peninsula and going thence, if possible, to Franklin's Point Turnagain, on the American coast. But the expedition was so shaken about and distressed, that it was forced to return.

In the spring of 1824 Parry with the ships Hecla and Fury, made his third Northern voyage. He went into Barrow's Straits and wintered at Port Bowen, on Regent's Inlet. Next year he proceeded westward and examined the coast of North Somerset. Here, on the eastern shore of the Inlet, he was forced to leave the Fury and return home.

In 1826 Capt. Franklin went down the river Mackenzie and explored the coast to the westward, 374 miles. His party returned to England in October 1827. In 1826 Capt. Beechy sailed into the Pacific and entered Behring's Straits. But he made no eastward progress.

Parry undertook his fourth voyage in 827. He went to Spitzbergen and leaving his ship proceeded with sledges, overland, towards the pole, which is about 600 miles from Hakluyt's Headland. But the attempt was fruitless. While he and his men were creeping up on boats and sledges, to between 82° and 83° beyond which none have ventured, the ice they were on was moving slowly to the South and their severe labor was all thrown away.

In 1-29, Captain John Ross, who had suffered a good deal in reputation from the treacherous Croker Mountains, resolved to make another effort. As government would not encourage him, he was indebted for his outfit to Mr. Felix Booth, a London distiller, and subsequently a knight and lord mayor, who, in return for his liberality, has received an Arctic immortality-an enduring monument in icebergs

in those regions bearing the names Boothia, Felix, Lord Mayor, as the reader may see on glancing at the map. Indeed, he should do more than glance at it; for without it, any disquisition on the Northern discoveries will make but a confused impression on his memory. Captain Ross went into Barrow's Straits, and entered Regent's Inlet. He visited the land on the west coast, and called it Boothia. He wintered there, and, in 1831, his nephew, James C. Ross, planted the English flag on the magnetic pole, in latitude 70° 177 north, and 96° 46′ 44′′ west longitude, where the dip of the needle was nearly vertical. In April, 1832, finding his ship, the Victory, could not be extricated from the ice, Ross left it, and journeyed to the Fury Beach for boats that were lying there. With these, after vast labor, he

tried to get out of Regent's Inlet; but he was obliged to give up the attempt, and retrace his steps to the wreck of the Fury, where he passed his fourth winter of 1832-3. In August, 1833, he made one more vigorous effort to get out, and, having passed in the boats through Barrow's Straits, he and his men were happily picked up, in Lancaster Sound, by the whaler, Isabella, the captain's old ship of discovery. The people of England believed Ross and his crew had perished, and, in the midst of their doubts and regrets, the nation was surprised and rejoiced by the news of his rescue. He has retrieved every thing, and the Croker Mountains were no longer remembered to his prejudice.

In 1833, Captain Back made a journey from the Hudson's Bay station to the Polar Sea. He went eastward beyond Franklin's Point, Turnagain, and traced the coast in the direction of Repulse Bay, a point within Hudson's waters. He returned in 1835, and sailed in 1836 up through Hudson's Straits, to try the chance of finding a way across the interval lying between his late land exploration on the west, and the bottom of Regent's Inlet. But the voyage was unsatisfactory. In 1836, Dease and Simpson went from a fort of the Hudson's Bay Company along the Mackenzie to the Arctic coasts, and examined the latter; but with no remarkable result. In 1845, other expeditions were set on foot. One was that of Dr. John Rae, who proceeded from Fort Churchhill, on Hudson's Bay, in July, 1846, and, travelling arduously northward with boats and sledges, discovered Boothia to be a peninsula. The other expedition was that of Sir John Franklin.

From the foregoing, it will be perceived that, after the first voyage of Parry, all other progress was, so to speak, carried on within and below his extreme delineations. No one had ventured beyond Cape Walker in the direction of Banks' Land, to the west and south of North Somerset, or gone beyond Parry's Islands to the northwest, or to the north, through Wellington Channel. Neither had any attempt been made from Baffin's Bay, above Lancaster Sound, to enter those remote waters said to flow round the pole. And, indeed, it was no wonder that the explorers preferred the more known and southerly latitudes of Repulse Bay, Boothia, Coronation Gulf, and Victoria Land, to the remoter solitudes of the more northern ways; while, at the same time, the narrowed space between the extreme of continental exploration from the west, and the coasts of Regent's Inlet and Hudson's Bay, very